Abstract
THE complicated title of this large quarto volume gives very little idea of the nature and value of its contents. In the first sentence of the Letter of Transmission we meet with a new and amusing use of an old enough English phrase, when Mr. Dall coolly informs the superintendent of the Survey that he has “the honour to turn in the results of an inquiry into the meteorology of Alaska and the adjacent regions.” The results of which Mr. Dall speaks in this irreverent manner must have cost him stupendous labour; indeed they might very well have taken years of research by a small international staff of inquirers. The publication comprises an abstract or summary of all accessible meteorological material relating to the district in question; both of that which has been published and is widely scattered through numerous proceedings, annuals, and transactions of learned societies, buried in periodicals in the Russian and other languages, and otherwise difficult of access; and also of a very large amount of unpublished material from the archives of the U.S. Coast Survey, the Medical Department of the U.S. Army, the U.S. Signal Service, and numerous contributions from private sources. With the abstracts are included the fullest references to the sources from which the materials are derived, and all the data which could be obtained as to the conditions of observation. The list of charts, maps, and publications relating to Alaska and the neighbouring regions, and occupying something like 200 quarto pages, is a wonderful piece of well-arranged work, and must prove valuable for many purposes besides that for which it has been immediately compiled. The volume also contains charts representing the monthly and annual means of temperature and pressure, graphic figures of the direction of the winds at each locality, and of the annual curves of pressure, precipitation, and temperature. Mr. Dall probably knows more about the region to which this volume refers than any other man living, and is able from his own observations and experience to contribute greatly to the value of his report. Altogether this is one of the most creditable of the many creditable scientific publications of the United States, and Mr. Dall is evidently one of the most valuable scientific servants of that Government. We hope, both for the good of the States and the interests of science, that he will be afforded every facility for utilising his exceptional ability as a scientific observer.
U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey. Pacific Coast Pilot. Coasts and Islands of Alaska. Appendix I. Meteorology and Bibliography.
By W. H. Dall. (Washington, 1879.)
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U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey Pacific Coast Pilot. Coasts and Islands of Alaska Appendix I. Meteorology and Bibliography . Nature 22, 336 (1880). https://doi.org/10.1038/022336b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/022336b0